For I am loath to break our country's laws.
Nor friends, nor foes, to me welcome you are:
Things past redress, are now with me past care.
[Exeunt.

SCENE IV-A Camp in Wales.
Enter SALISBURY, and a CAPTAIN.
Capt. My lord of Salisbury, we have staid ten
days,

And hardly kept our countrymen together,
And yet we hear no tidings from the king;
Therefore we will disperse ourselves: farewell.
Sal. Stay yet another day, thou trusty Welsh-

ACT

[Exit.

n

For 'twere no charity: yet, to wash your blood
From off my hands, here, in the view of men,
I will unfold some causes of your death.
You have misled a prince, a royal king,
A happy gentleman in blood and lineaments,
By you unhappied and disfigur'd clean.
You have, in manner, with your sinful hours,
Made a divorce betwixt his queen and him,
Broke the possession of a royal bed,
And stain'd the beauty of a fair queen's cheeks
With tears drawn from her eyes by your foul

wrongs.

Myself a prince, by fortune of my birth,'
Near to the king in blood, and pear in love,
Till you did make him misinterpret me,
Have stoop'd my neck under your injuries,
breath
And sigh'd my English
in foreign

clouds,

Eating the bitter bread of banishinent;"
Whilst you have fed upon my signories,
Dispark'd my parks, and fell'd my forest
woods;

From my own windows torn my household
coat, t

Raz'd out my impress, leaving me no sign,"
Save men's opinions, and my living blood,
To show the world I am a gentleman.

This, and much more, much more than twice
all this,

Condemns you to the death :-See them deliver'd

to me,

Than Bolingbroke to England.-Lords, farewell. Green. My comfort is,-that heaven will take our souls,

Aud plague injustice with the pains of hell. Boling. My lord Northumberland, see them despatck'd.

[Exeunt NORTHUMBERLAND and others,
with Prisoners.

Uncle, you say, the queen is at your house;
For heaven's sake, fairly let her be entreated:
Tell her, I send to her my kind commends; [[
Take special care my greetings be deliver'd,

York. A gentleman of mine I have despatch'd
With letters of your love to her at large.
Boling. Thanks, gentle uncle.-Come, lords,
To fight with Glendower and his complices;
Awhile to work, and, after, holiday.

away;

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.-The Coast of Wales.-A castle in view.

N Enter

Flourish: Drums and Trumpets.
King RICHARD, Bishop of CARLISLE, AU-
MERLE, and Soldiers.

K. Rich. Barkloughly castle call you this at
hand?

Aum. Yea, my lord: how brooks your grace

the air,

After late tossing on the breaking seas?

K. Rich. Needs must I like it well: I weep

for joy.

To stand upon my kingdom once again.-
Dear earth, I do salute thee with my hand,
Though rebels wound thee with their horses'

hoofs:

As a long parted mother with her child
Plays fondly with her tears, and smiles in
meeting;

So, weeping, smiling, greet I thee, my earth,

SCENE I-BOLINGBROKE's Camp at Bristol. And do thee favour with my royal hands.
Feed not thy sovereign's foe, my gentle earth,
Enter BOLINGBROKE, YORK, NORTHUMBER-
Nor with thy sweets comfort his rav'nous scuse:
LAND, PERCY, WILLOUGHBY, ROSS: O But let thy spiders, that suck up thy venom,
cers behind with BUSHY and GREEN, Pri-And heavy-gaited toads, lie in their way

York. Give me my boots, I say; saddle my
borse :-

Now by mine honour, by my life, my troth,
I will appeach the villain.
[Erit Servant.

Duch. What's the matter?
York. Peace, foolish woman.

Duch. I will not peace :-What is the matter,

Which for some reasons I would not have seen. Enter BOLINGBROKE as King; PERCY, and York, Which for some reasons, Sir, I mean

If any plague bang over us, 'tis be.

I would to God, my lords, he might be found:

York. Bound to himself? what doth he with Inquire at London, 'mongst the taverns there,

a|Thou kill'st me in his life; giving him breath,
The traitor lives, the true man's put to death.
Duch. [Within.] What ho, iny liege for
God's sake let me in.

And wear it as a favour; and with that
He would unhorse the lustiest challenger.
as desperate; yet
Boling. As dissolute

through both

I see some sparkles of a better hope,
Which elder days may happily bring forth.
But who comes here ?

Enter AUMERLE, hastily.

Aum. Where is the king?

Boling, What means

your majesty,

Our cousin, that he stares and looks so wildly ?
I do beseech
Aum. God save your grace.
To have some conference with your grace alone.
Boling. Withdraw yourselves, and leave us
here alone.-

[Exeunt PERCY and LORDS.
What is the matter with our cousin now?
Aum. For ever may my knees grow to the
[Kneels.
earth,
My tongue cleave to my roof within my mouth,
Culess a pardon, ere I rise or speak.

Beling. Intended or committed, was this
fault?

If but the first, how heinous ere it be,
To win thy after-love, I pardon thee.
Aum. Then give me leave that I may turn
the key,

That no man enter till my tale be done.
Beling. Have thy desire.
[AUMERLE locks the door.
York. [Within.] My liege, beware; look to
thyself;

Thou hast a traitor in thy presence there.
Boling. Villain, I'll make thee safe.

[Drawing.

Aum. Stay thy revengeful hand;
Thou hast no canse to fear.
York. [Within.] Open the door, secure, fool-
hardy king:

Shall 1, for love, speak treason to thy face?
Open the door, or I will break it open.
[BOLINGBROKE opens the door.

Enter YORK.

Baling. What is the matter, uncle? speak; Recover breath; tell us how near is danger, That we may arm us to encounter it.

York. Peruse this writing here, and thou shalt know

The treason that my haste forbids me show.
Aum. Remember, as thou read'st, thy pro-
mise past:

I do repent me; read not my name there,
My heart is not confederate with my hand.
York. 'Twas, villain, ere thy hand did set it
down.-

I tore it from the traitor's bosom, king:
Fear, and not love, begets his penitence:
Forget to pity him, lest thy pity prove
4 serpent that will sting thee to the heart.

Boling. What shrill-voic'd suppliant makes
this eager cry?

Duch. A woman, and thine aunt, great king,
'tis I.

Speak with me, pity me, open the door;

A beggar begs, that never begg'd before.
Boling. Our scene is alter'd,-from a serious
thing,

And now chang'd to The Beggar and the
King.*

My dangerous cousin, let your mother in;
I know she's come to pray for your foul sin.
York. If thou do pardon, whosoever pray,
More sins, for this forgiveness, prosper may.
This fester'd joint cut off, the rest rests sound;
This, let alone, will all the rest confound.
Enter DUCHESS.

Duch. O king, believe not this hard-hearted

man;

Love, loving not itself, none other can.
York. Thou frantic woman, what dost thou
make here?

Shall thy old dugs once more a traitor rear?
Duch. Sweet York, be patient: Hear me,
[Kneels.
gentle liege.

Boling. Rise up, good aunt,
Duch. Not yet, I thee beseech:
For ever will I kneel upon my knees,
And never see day that the happy sees,
Till thou give joy; until thou bid me joy,
By pardoning Rutland, my transgressing boy.
Aum. Unto my mother's prayers, I bend my
knee.

[Kneels.
York. Against them both, my true joints
[Kneels.
bended be.
Ill may'st thou thrive, if thou grant any grace!
Duch. Pleads he in earnest? look upon his
face;

His eyes do drop no tears, his prayers are in jest;

His words come from his mouth, ours from our

breast:

He prays but faintly, and would be denied;
We pray with heart, and soul, and all be-
side :

His weary joints would gladly rise, I know;
Our knees shall kneel till to the ground they

grow;

His prayers are full of false hypocrisy ;
Our's of true zeal and deep integrity.
Our prayers do out-pray his; then let them

have

That mercy, which true prayers ought to have.
Boling. Good aunt, stand up.

Duch. Nay, do not say-stand up;

But, pardon, first; and afterwards stand up.
And if I were thy nurse, thy tongue to teach,
Pardon should be the first word of thy speech.
I never long'd to hear a word till now;
Say pardon, king; let pity teach thee how :

Boling. O heinous, strong, and bold conspi-The word is short, but not so short as sweet;

Tacy!

O royal father of a treacherous son!
Thou sheer, immaculate, and silver fountain,
From whence this stream through muddy pas-
sages,

Hath held his current, and defil'd himself!
Thy everflow of good converts to bad;
And chy abundant goodness shall excuse
This deadly blot in thy digressing + son.
York. So shall my virtue be his vice's
bawd;
And he shall spend mine honour with his

shame,

As thriftless sons their scraping fathers' gold. Mine honour lives when his dishonour dies, Or may sham'd life in his dishonour lies:

No word like pardon, for kings' mouths so

meet.

York. Speak it in French, king; say, par

donnez moy.‡

Duch. Dost thou teach pardon pardon to de-
stroy;

Ah! my sour husband, my hard-hearted lord,
That set'st the word itself against the word ?-
Speak, pardon, as 'tis current in our land;
The chopping French we do not understand.
Thine eye begins to speak, set thy tongue

there :

Or, in thy piteous heart plant thou thine ear;
That, hearing, how our plaints and prayers do

pierce,

Pity may move thee, pardon to rehearse.

An old ballad.

+ Do.

¡Excuse me.

Boling. Good annt, stand up.
Duch. I do not sue to stand,
Pardon is all the suit I have in hand.
Boling. I pardon him, as God shall pardon

me.

Duch. O happy vantage of a kneeling knee!
Yet am I sick for fear speak it again;
Twice saying pardon, doth not pardon twain,.
But makes one pardon strong.

Boling. With all my heart

I pardon him.

Duck. A god on earth thou art.

Nor shall not be the last; like silly beggars,
Who, sitting in the stocks refuge their shame,-
That many have, and others must sit there:
And in this thought they find a kind of ease,
Bearing their own misfortune on the back
Of such as have before endur'd the like,
Thus play I, in one person, many people,
And none contented: Sometimes am I king;
Then treason makes me wish myself a beggar,
And so I am: Then crushing penury
Persuades me I was better when a king;
Then am I king'd again: and, by-and-by,
Think that I am unking'd by Bolingbroke,
And straight am nothing :-But, whate'er I am,
Nor 1, nor any man, that but man is,
the With nothing shall be pleas'd, till be be eas'd
With being nothing.-Music do I hear?

Boling. But for our trusty brother-in-law,
and the abbot,

With all the rest of that consorted crew,-
Destruction straight shall dog them at

heels.

Good uncle, help to order several powers*
To Oxford, or where'er these traitors are:
They shall not live within this world, I swear,
But I will have them, if I once know where.
Uncle, farewell,-and cousin too, adieu :
Your mother well hath pray'd, and prove you

[Music. Ha, ha! keep time :-How sour sweet mu sic is,

When time is broke, and no proportion kept!
So is it in the music of men's lives.
And here have I the daintiness of ear,
To check time broke in a disorder'd string;
But for the concord of my state and time,
Had not an ear to hear my true time broke.
I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.
For now hath time made me his numb'ring
clock:

My thoughts are minutes; and, with sighs,
they jar
[watch,
Their watches on to mine eyes, the outward
Whereto my finger, like a dial's point,
Is pointing still, in cleansing them from tears.
Now, Sir, the sound, that tells what hour it is,
Are clamorous groans, that strike upon my
heart,

Which is the bell: So sighs, and tears, and
groans,
[time
Show minutes, times, and hours:- bat my
Runs posting on in Bolingbroke's proud joy,
While I stand fooling here, is Jack o'the clock. +
This music mads me, let it sound no more;
For, though it have holpe madmen to their
wits,

In me, it seems it will make wise men mad.
Yet blessing on his heart that gives it me!
For 'tis a sign of love; and love to Richard
Is a strange brooch ‡ in this all-hating world.
Enter GROOM.

Groom. Hail, royal prince!
K. Rich. Thanks, noble peer;
The cheapest of us is ten groats too dear.

K. Rich. I have been studying how I may What art thou? and how comest thou hither,

As thoughts of things divine,-are intermix'd
With scruples, and do set the word itself
Against the word: f

As thus,-Come little ones; and then again,-
It is as hard to come, as for a cumel
To thread the postern of a needle's eye.
Thought tending to ambition, they do plot
Unlikely wonders: how these vain weak nails
May tear a passage through the flinty ribs
Of this hard world, my ragged prison walls;
And, for they cannot, die in their own pride.
Thoughts tending to content, flatter

selves,

them

That they are not the first of fortune's slaves,

• Forces.

1 Holy scripture

Where no man Rever comes, but that sad dog
That brings me food, to make misfortune live!
Groom. I was a poor groom of thy stable,

king,

When thou wert king; who, travelling towards
York,

With much ado, at length have gotten leave
To look upon my sometimes master's face.
Oh! how it yearn'd my heart, when I beheld,
In London streets, that coronation day,
When Bolingbroke rode on roan Barbary!
The horse, that thou so often bast bestrid;
That horse, that I so carefully have dress'd!
K. Rich. Rode he on Barbary? Tell me,
gentle friend,

How went he under him?

Groom. So proudly, as if he disdain'd the

+ His own body.
Little gate.

of a man on a bell.
and also a jewel in general.

§ Former.

Of that proud man that did usurp his The next news is I have to London sent

With Cain go wander through the shade of
night,

Flourish. Enter BOLINGBROKE, and YORK, Lords, I protest my soul is full of woe,
And never show thy head by day nor light.-

Welcome, my lord: What is the news?
North. First, to thy sacred state wish I al! In weeping after this untimely bier.
happiness.

It was long the prevailing opinion that Sir Piers Exton, and others of his guards, fell upon Richard in the sch of Pomfret, where he was confined, and despatched him with their halberts. But it is more probable that was starved to death in prison; and it is said that he prolonged his unhappy life for a fortnight, after all ## Conance was denied him, before he reached the end of his miseries.---Hume.